A Life Less Ordinary: The Beginning
by cigazze
Summary: In which Remus observes his new roommates.


Remus keeps his eyes on his sweaters, folding them the way his mother taught him, doing his best to avoid the attention of the boys in his dormitory. Attention is not something Remus desires, after all. He's slipped beneath the radar so far in his life, and he doesn't really see the point in changing that now.

Still, it's fun to at least _look _at everyone else, to try and see what his life will be like with them for the next seven years. James Potter, the boy who introduced himself on the train, is running around the room jumping on top of beds and kicking off every wall he encounters. His messy black hair is sticking straight up from his head, from sweat or excitement Remus can't tell, and his glasses are hanging lopsided. He doesn't seem to notice.

Peter Pettigrew, the odd boy who squeezed in next to him at the dinner table, is sitting on his bed following James' every move with his small eyes. His fingers search across his already rumpled bedsheets to find a wrapper that still has the chocolate inside of it. Remus turns away, quickly moving his chocolate stash to a different safe place.

Then Remus looks at Sirius Black, the boy who knocked into his shoulder as they made their way into the common room earlier that evening. Sirius being sorted into Gryffindor was a bit of a shock, it seemed, what with the way the hall went still for a bit before a few hissing whispers were heard coming from the Slytherin end. He seemed happy enough at first about where he ended up, Remus thought, but now he's not so sure. Sirius is sitting frozen on the edge of his four poster, all color gone from his face. Every now and then a tremor will run through him, all the way from his head down to his feet, like he's been electrocuted or had a particularly unpleasant thought. Remus doesn't know what to say, not that he would say anything if he did know, because getting involved was not something Remus did often.

James Potter pauses on what must have been his twenty-fourth lap around the dormitory and steps up to Sirius somewhat hesitantly. James says something to him, Remus can't quite make it out, and Sirius takes a moment to consider before smiling and nodding and shaking James' hand in a surprisingly businesslike way.

They begin to look around the dormitory, eyeing up their fellow roommates. Their eyes pass over Peter almost automatically and land on Remus. He keeps his head down, straightening the fold of his particular favorite sweater over and over again, waiting for them to see that he is not interesting.

The sound of a throat clearing above him makes Remus look up. James and Sirius are standing there with a strange glint in their eyes.

"I'm James, this is Sirius, you're Remus Lupin, and we have a proposition for you," James says quickly.

Remus has to take a second to form the words in his mouth, and even then the question, "What do you mean a proposition?" gets caught between his teeth and hindered by his tongue and smothered by his lips.

"Look," James says in what can only be described as a Conspiratorial Whisper, "we're going to play a prank and we need a third. You don't even have to do anything, I swear, we just need you as lookout. You in?"

"What kind of prank?" Remus asks warily in his own Conspiratorial Whisper, which is a sign that he has passed the point of no return before he was ever conscious of it.

"Just a small one, really," replied James, "Sirius brought some Dungbombs from home, see. Don't know how he got them past Filch, but whatever the method it was brilliant! Anyway, we were just going to let them loose at very, er, _strategic _points in the Tower. We just need you to keep watch for us, honest. Unless you want to help, of course."

"No, no helping," said Remus immediately. He doesn't even want to be their lookout, because Remus can think of a hundred things that could go wrong. Staring up at them, though, at their eager excitement, he sees the first faint glimmer of a hundred things that could go right, and before he can stop and think about it, he finishes with, "But yeah, I'll be your lookout. That's probably best, seeing as how I've never actually used a Dungbomb before."

This was met with a stunned silence from the other two boys until Sirius, light eyes flashing, holds out a hand and says, "Don't worry, Lupin, you just wait, we'll make a proper boy out of you in no time.


End file.
